


Beautifully Symptomatic

by mywordsflyup



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Library, Librarian Zenyatta, Libraries, M/M, dumb flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 03:36:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9697865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mywordsflyup/pseuds/mywordsflyup
Summary: It's not like Genji has never set foot inside a library.He just never had this good of a reason.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Byacolate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Byacolate/gifts).



> because we didn't manage to write a genyatta thing for valentine's day, i wrote one for you. ❤️

“You are up to something.” Hanzo turns off the engine of his car and pulls the key out of the ignition but makes no move to get out. Instead, he stares at Genji, that familiar little line of irritation in between his eyebrows.

 

“I don’t know what you mean.” Genji hugs his bag closer to his body and tries not to look his brother in the eye. That hardly ever ends well for him.

 

“You cannot fool me. Something is going on here.”

 

“Maybe you’re just paranoid?” Genji tries, reaching down to unbuckle his seatbelt. Hanzo’s hand shoots out lightning fast and stops him before he’s even gotten close.

 

“You have never set foot inside a library voluntarily and suddenly you ask me to drive you here at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning?”

 

Genji wrestles his hand free and finally manages to unbuckle his seatbelt. He’s out of the door before Hanzo can catch him a second time. “It pains me that you have such little faith in me,” he says before his closes the car door behind him.

 

Hanzo gets out of the driver’s seat, looking only a little frazzled. “Not in you. Just in your sense of academic responsibility.” He locks the car and follows Genji as he walks towards the large red-brick building on the other side of the street.

 

“I’ve been at the library before,” Genji says, hoping that perhaps feigning offense will dissuade his brother from his curiosity.

 

“Two days before a deadline with your bag full of energy drinks and very questionable snacks, perhaps.”

 

The accuracy of Hanzo’s statement doesn’t make it better.

 

The library’s main doors are tall and impressive, all dark wood, brass and history, and Genji admits that he probably wouldn’t feel as intimidated by them if he’d been here more than a handful of times during the last three years.

 

The marble stairs leading from the foyer up to the main hall are equally grand, as are the large painting of important literary figures and historians lining the walls. Genji always thought the whole thing was rather pompous. Now the sight just fills him with giddy excitement. Some of it must have shown on his face, judging from the look Hanzo shoots him.

 

Tall bookshelves reach up towards the high ceiling of the main hall, an impressive rotunda with a spiral staircase leading up into the history and sociology sections. Usually any visitor’s eyes would first be drawn to the colorful glass ceiling high above - no matter how regularly they come here. But Genji’s attention is somewhere else.

 

Hanzo follows his gaze, straight to the information desk.

 

And the librarian behind it.

 

“You are shameless.”

 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Genji says sweetly, already moving towards the desk. “Didn’t you have some work to do?”

 

“ _Shameless_ ,” Hanzo just repeats but makes no move to follow him. He’s been witness to Genji’s flirting one too many times before.

 

Zenyatta looks up from the screen of his computer when Genji approaches the desk. “Oh”, he says before a warm smile appears on his face. “Good morning!”

 

Genji leans against the desk and gives Zenyatta a smile that he hopes looks more confident and less… hopelessly smitten. “Good morning.”

 

“You’re here early. Usually I have the place for myself until at least 9.”

 

“Should I leave and come back later?”

 

Zenyatta laughs and Genji doesn’t think he’s ever heard anything sweeter. “Oh, please stay. I enjoy the company.” He leans forward as if divulging some kind of scandalous secret. “It gets awfully boring here sometimes.”

 

Genji could make some snide comment about the nature of libraries. God knows, Hanzo has heard them all before. But somehow, when Zenyatta looks at him like that, he doesn’t want to be snide. Not even a little bit.

 

“Maybe I can help with that.”

 

Zenyatta nods and for a moment Genji gets distracted by the length of his eyelashes, his chest awfully tight all of a sudden.

 

“Do you need help finding another book?” Zenyatta asks, already getting out of his seat. He’s very tall, like a slender birch tree or some equally ridiculous metaphor, and it makes Genji’s heart skip a beat just like the first time he saw him.

 

He hasn’t finished the book Zenyatta found for him last week. He’s started it, which is more than he can say about a lot of books that have ever been in his possession. Mostly just because Zenyatta seemed very taken with it. And he… well, he’s very taken with Zenyatta.

 

“Uh,” Genji says when he realizes he hasn’t answered Zenyatta’s question. “I brought a list.” He rummages through his bag. Just this morning, he printed out a list of recommended reading his professor sent around at the beginning of the semester. Perhaps not the best plan. Even the best librarian would probably be a bit at a loss when confronted with just four pages of secondary literature.

 

Zenyatta takes the list from him, his fingers brushing against Genji’s for just the shortest of seconds. Genji is still recovering from that while Zenyatta takes a look at the title.

 

“I must admit,” Zenyatta says and gives him another dazzling smile, “I’m a little jealous.”

 

“Oh?” Genji blinks.

 

“I wanted to take this class and didn’t get in. Is it as good as the description made it sound?”

 

Genji can feel heat rising in his cheeks, for once more out of embarrassment than anything else. But the thought of lying to Zenyatta seems even worse, somehow. He runs his fingers through his hair, trying to find the right words that won't make him sound like a complete asshole. “To be honest… I’ve missed a couple of sessions.”

 

There it is. The understatement of the century.

 

Zenyatta just laughs again. “Not that interesting then, I take it.”

 

Genji laughs but fears it sounds more relieved than amused. He vows to never ever skip class again.

 

“Perhaps some of these anthologies,” Zenyatta continues and points to a few titles on Genji’s list. “They should give you a good overview of the topic. Even with… irregular attendance.” There’s not a hint of judgment in his tone. Just genuine amusement, which Genji drinks up like a daisy in the desert.

 

Zenyatta leads him through the long rows of bookshelves away from the front desk and deeper into the library. Genji expects that they’ll take the main staircase up to the history section but Zenyatta goes straight past it, obviously with a different destination in mind.

 

This early, there are not a lot of people here yet, the usual quiet still genuine silence. Genji almost feels like he’s supposed to sneak. Like Zenyatta is leading him into some secret and forbidden part of the library.

 

When they stop in front of a wooden door and Zenyatta pulls a small key from his pocket, he tells him so.

 

“I’m the librarian,” Zenyatta says and unlocks the door. “There are no forbidden parts of the library for me.”

 

Genji can hardly argue with that logic. And when Zenyatta beckons, he follows.

 

It’s a second smaller staircase, winding up into the darkness above. Zenyatta flicks a lightswitch by the door but it remains dim, especially when the door falls shut behind Genji.

 

“It’s a shortcut,” Zenyatta says, but something about his lowered voice and the glint in his eyes tells Genji that perhaps he really isn’t supposed to be here after all.

 

“A shortcut to where?” Genji asks as he follows Zenyatta up the stairs. “Narnia?”

 

Zenyatta’s laugh is clear as a bell. “Now that would be exciting!”

 

“You didn’t deny it.”

 

Zenyatta stops at the top of the stairs in front of another wooden door. He turns to look at Genji before unlocking it. “Nothing quite so interesting, I’m afraid.”

 

It’s not Narnia. But it _is_ a shortcut. And a pretty impressive one at that.

 

“Woah,” Genji says, blinking against the sudden daylight. “I don’t think I’ve ever been up here before.”

 

“Top floor,” Zenyatta says, practically humming with pride. “Right underneath the glass ceiling.”

 

It’s less of an actual floor and more of a broad balcony, going all around the rotunda, with just a few sleek bookshelves and even fewer desks. Genji steps up to the railing. Just above him is the ceiling, the shapes the stained glass forms clearer than ever before. Far down below he can see the main hall - Zenyatta’s empty desk and a few early birds already wandering between the shelves.

 

“I wouldn’t even know _how_ to get up here.”

 

“It’s a bit of a hassle,” Zenyatta admits and joins Genji at the railing. He’s very close, his hand curled around the metal right next to Genji’s.

 

“Unless you know a secret shortcut,” Genji says and in a fit of boldness, gently bumps his hip against Zenyatta.

 

It gets him a smile, the most dazzling yet. Probably. It’s difficult to rank them when it takes all of Genji’s mental energy just to remember how to breathe.

 

“Librarian perks.” Zenyatta leaves his side and Genji swallows the noise of disappointment that builds in his throat. “Let’s look for those anthologies.”

 

Anthologies. Yes. Of course.

 

As impressive as Zenyatta’s knowledge of the library and its confusing layout is, it’s also the sole source of Genji’s despair as he watches him peruse the shelves - knowing that as soon as Zenyatta has found the books, he’ll return to his desk and leave Genji to… do what? Read? Study? Wallow in his misfortune?

 

“There we go,” Zenyatta says, pulling two unreasonably thick volumes from the top shelf. “These are older editions than the one on your list but apart from the introduction, it’s the same book. And in better condition.” He taps his knuckles against one of them before handing them to Genji.

 

They are heavy but Zenyatta is right. Genji can’t remember the last time he’s seen a library book that was this pristine.

 

“Let me guess. It’s because nobody ever finds them up here?”

 

Zenyatta smiles beatifically and wipes some non-existent dust from the shelf in front of him. “Or perhaps I hid them here specifically for you?”

 

“You’re psychic as well? Another librarian perk?”

 

“We’re mysterious people.” Zenyatta leans against the shelf and Genji thinks he’d very much like to kiss him.

 

“Practically magic.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Brooke Fraser's "Human (IV Fridays)". 
> 
> About fic requests inquire [here.](http://damnable-rogue.tumblr.com/ask)  
> You can also find me on Tumblr, if you want: [damnable-rogue](http://damnable-rogue.tumblr.com/)  
> 


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